


I Just Called To Say I Love You

by lunstor



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst and Feels, Gen or Pre-Slash, Multi, POV Outsider, Stanford Era (Supernatural), bc it's stanford guys, can be interpreted entirely as gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 01:34:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29002293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunstor/pseuds/lunstor
Summary: Today is Jess's birthday, but Sam seems strangely... off.
Relationships: Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester, Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester
Comments: 1
Kudos: 37





	I Just Called To Say I Love You

**Author's Note:**

> Here I am, posting a birthday fic two days too late. Enjoy!  
> (Title from "I Just Called To Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder)

It was the third time since that morning that Sam was staring at his phone screen without saying a word. Jess pinched his side to rouse him from his trance-like state, and Sam winced. He had the guilty look of someone who had just been caught red-handed, and if Jess hadn't known better she would have thought he was cheating on her with another woman. Sam, a cheater. Sure, right. Pigs were more likely to start flying.

It was only because she was absolutely convinced there was something else going on that she decided to tease him a little. «So, what's her name? Carol? Or Hannah?»

Sam blinked a couple of times, apparently not understanding. «Sorry, who?»

« Your secret lover, of course» she answered with a sly grin.

Sam's cheeks were on fire. «Wha...? No, Jess! How could you think that I... I mean... Absolutely not!» he stammered, visibly panicked.

He was adorable when he was embarrassed.

Jess started to laugh, and Sam visibly relaxed, realizing she wasn't being serious. «I’m kidding, I’m kidding!» she said, reassuring him with a kiss. «You've been thinking of something all day, though. Do I need to remind you that today is my birthday and so I want you all to myself?» She raised an eyebrow, winking.

This time it was Sam who laughed, but it was more of a snort than an actual laugh. She felt his arms encircle her waist. «You're right, Jess. I've been a little… absent today, huh?» He kissed her softly. «Sorry.»

Jess looked at him, and this time for good measure. There was a note of sadness and melancholy in his tone that she couldn't explain. She clasped one of her hands in his. «Sam, you know you can tell me anything, don't you?» she told him, serious. Sam had always been shifty and never opened up to anyone, but lately he had started to make an effort for her and tell her more often how he was feeling or what he was thinking. Baby steps.

Sam nervously bit his bottom lip and shifted his gaze to the floor. Several seconds passed before he answered. «Today is also my brother's birthday.»

Oh. Now everything made much more sense.

Sam rarely talked about his family. The only things Jess knew she had figured out by piecing together the little bits and pieces that Sam occasionally let slip here and there. She knew his mother had died when he was very young. She knew that his father worked a job that didn't allow him to settle in one place for more than a few weeks, so Sam had spent his childhood and adolescence homeless. He knew that said father wasn't exactly supposed to be father of the year, as Sam had severed all ties with his family and seemed intent on keeping things as they were. And she knew that his brother Dean was a touchy subject.

He talked about him rarely, but it had been enough for her to understand that underneath it all there was a very complicated relationship. Whenever Led Zeppelin was playing on the radio, or when Jess would get the sudden craving for a double cheeseburger and drag Sam to the nearest diner to get it, Sam would always have the same expression on his face, the same expression he had right then: his eyes would get soft and a nostalgic smile would appear on his face. And every time Jess asked him what he was thinking about, the answer was always the same. _I was just thinking of my brother_.

Jess was sure that Dean was a very different deal than his father, one could tell by the way Sam talked about him, but the fact remained that for as long as she had known him, Sam had never had any contact with him either. Still, he seemed to be a very important person in Sam's life, and it was obvious that he was hurting, but Jess had never tried to talk to him about it. It was family business, personal stuff, and she didn't know if she already had the right to get involved in such sensitive matters, since she and Sam had only been dating for only a few months.

His brother's birthday was a special occasion, though, so she decided to make an exception and try anyway. «Maybe you could call him and wish him a happy birthday, what do you say?»

Sam merely shook his head and gave her another one of his sad smiles. «Nah, we've never been that attached to this kind of holidays» he said. Then his smile turned into a more genuine one, he brought his hands to cup her face and kissed her for a long time. «Besides, you said it yourself, today I have to think only of the birthday girl.» His smirk hinted at _exactly_ what ways he would be thinking about her that day.

Jess rolled her eyes, but she smiled. Thar was a blatant attempt to deflect the conversation, but if he really didn't feel like talking about it, Jess certainly wouldn't push it. She'd figure out how to get Sam to spill the beans another day.

****

«Saaaaam! I'm to... I'm totally fine, I can walk on my own!» mumbled Jess, trying to break away from Sam's grip. Instead, Sam huffed and did the exact opposite, tightening his grip to better keep her on her feet. «Stumbling and almost tripping on a perfectly flat road don't sound exactly like walking to me, Jess.»

«Hey, it's not every day you turn twenty-one, I had to celebrate! It's not my fault that there are still some _underage kids_ here who are forced to use fake IDs to drink a beer» she replied, poking his side.

«Yesterday you were an _underage kid_ too, miss twenty-one, don't forget that.»

«Details, details» Jess muttered, before deciding that her head was spinning far too much to continue any conversation and silently letting herself be dragged home.

Fortunately, the bar where they'd gone to celebrate with their friends wasn't that far from Jess's apartment, and after a few minutes they were standing in front of her doorway. Sam dug through her purse to find the keys - «Jess, how the hell do you find them in the middle of this mess?» - and finally opened the door. He carried her, still stumbling, to her room and put her on the bed, adjusting the pillow behind her head. Jess noticed in time that Sam was moving away, so she wrapped an arm around him to stop him. «Sam, where do you think you're going?»

He raised an eyebrow. "Uh. To my dorm room?" he replied with a note of doubt.

«No! It's late, it's my birthday...»

«It's past midnight.»

«Shhh, until I go to sleep it's still my birthday, and you wouldn't want to leave me alone on my birthday, would you?»

Jess pouted. She knew Sam wouldn't say no to her, and she wasn't at all averse to using some dirty trick to get him to sleep in her bed. She was drunk, she was dizzy, and she just wanted to cuddle with her boyfriend.

She saw Sam smile and shake his head. «All right, Jess, I'll stay. Scoot over.»

He took off his pants and sweatshirt, remaining only in his t-shirt and boxers, and lay down beside her, holding her close. He began fiddling with a strand of hair. «You're going to sleep now though, okay?»

Jess just made a contented sound and rested her cheek on his chest, which was moving to the slow rhythm of his breath. It didn't take long for her to sink into a deep sleep.

****

She awoke slowly, her head pounding. It must have still been night, because her eyes did not perceive any light. Something was wrong, she was sure of it, and that something was revealed to her as she slowly opened her eyes and her pupils adjusted to the darkness.

Sam was no longer lying next to her, but was sitting on the edge of the bed, giving her his back. He probably hadn't even noticed he'd woken her up.

She reached out a hand to pat him and get him to come back to sleep, but stopped in mid-air when she noticed that Sam was on the phone. He wasn't talking, though. The only sound was his breathing, heavier than usual. His free hand was on the bed, gripping the sheets in a firm grip, his shoulders stiff. Jess couldn't hear any sound coming from the other end of the line either.

Several seconds of complete silence passed. Then Sam spoke. «Happy birthday, Dean.»

He hung up.

His shoulders began to shake. Jess heard him sniffing.

Okay, that was enough.

He bridged the distance between the two of them and placed the palm of his hand on the other's back. Sam gasped and turned around, surprised to see her awake and surely embarrassed to realize that Jess must have witnessed the whole scene. His eyes were wet.

Jess said nothing. She squeezed his hand and pulled it to make him lie down. Sam hesitated for a moment, but then he let her guide him. This time they ended up in reverse positions, with Sam resting his head on her chest, hiding his face, and Jess beginning to stroke his hair. Sam didn't cry, but his breathing remained shaky for some time, before becoming slower and more regular, a sign that he had finally fallen asleep. Only then she stopped stroking his hair and started to relax.

Jess's last thought before falling back asleep was that this Dean guy must have really been something, to have such an influence on Sam. She wondered if she would ever get to meet him, someday.


End file.
